19 September, 2018

Chili Mac and Cheese Recipe (30 Minute Dinner)

This Chili Mac and Cheese recipe is your new favorite 30 minute dinner! It is so easy to put together and calls for pantry items you always have on hand. (What, you don’t always have Velveeta on hand? We’re not friends.)

Yesterday I took the kids to their swimming lessons, and realized within .5 seconds of sitting down that I had left my phone at home. I hadn’t brought a book or anything to do, so I knew I was in for a long haul of actually watching my kid’s swim lessons (hey don’t judge, we are on week SIX of swim lessons this summer, how dedicated can you expect me to be??)

I knew I was in for half an hour of coming up with genius ideas to pass the time…that all involve my phone. Do you do this? Here are all the things I thought for a millisecond I could do, before remembering that I was phone-less:

This was all just in a half hour. Do you ever have thoughts like these, over and over again, when you forget your phone?? It’s pretty pathetic how attached I am!

Then after I got home I used my phone to take a picture of the list I had made so that I didn’t have to worry about losing it. FULL CIRCLE GUYS.

Have you ever made Chili Mac? It’s one of those easy ground beef recipes that every cook needs in the arsenal. It’s just a classic. I don’t know why it feels so classic to me, since my mom never made it growing up. (Speaking of classic. I saw a Facebook video the other day where people were talking about how it’s a thing to eat chili paired with cinnamon rolls. I showed it to Eric so that he could be appropriately disgusted, but instead he said, “Oh yeah, chili and cinnamon rolls every Friday for lunch at school growing up.” Whaaaa???

Well I’ll take some cornbread with my Chili Mac, hold the cinnamon rolls please.

Do you see all that char? It’s a beautiful thing. It’s just from using fire roasted Rotel, which I highly recommend.

Don’t go hating on my Velveeta now. It makes for the CREAMIEST, CHEESIEST soups ever. I wouldn’t put it on a sandwich (okay well. Maybe a grilled cheese.) But I’m telling you, Velveeta in soup is just lovely. If it’s not your thing, you can totally use shredded cheddar instead. I’ve tried it both ways and they are both delicious! (whichever one you use, you should definitely top each serving with freshly shredded cheddar.)